CellTrust Prepares NFC Provisioning APIs Using SecureSMS for Carriers and Banks as NFC Technology Rollout Begins in 2011

CellTrust Removes Major Obstacle for Mobile Operators and Banks by Delivering OTA (Over-The-Air) NFC Configuration and Provisioning

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, USA – August 25, 2010 – CellTrust Corporation, the world’s largest provider of SecureSMS for mobile phones (www.celltrust.com), announced today that it is preparing patent-pending, NFC-provisioning APIs using SecureSMS, in anticipation of NFC technology rollout beginning in early 2011.

NFC (Near Field Communication) is a short-range wireless communication standard that bundles a contactless chip with a contactless reader inside the mobile device. With NFC technology, consumers can simply wave or tap their phone within a few inches of a reader to transfer information to their mobile phone or to complete a mobile payment or transaction.

Designed to make life much easier for the end-user, provisioning NFC will require the carrier to send sensitive and confidential information to the mobile subscriber’s handset. While a few methods exist to provision NFC, CellTrust believes SMS is the optimal choice because it uses the mobile communications control channel, which is separate from voice and data and operates regardless of the voice or data being used. The control channel has high resiliency, low bandwidth requirements and was designed for carriers to send specific commands and instructions to the handset via SMS. It is important to note that standard SMS is not secure and can be spoofed. Provisioning NFC with CellTrust’s SecureSMS APIs addresses spoofing with a fully authenticated, government-grade, highly encrypted, tamper-proof process, which also enables message sizes up to 5,000 characters.

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Yep, Apparently You Can Rob Banks with your Nokia 1100!

I was emailed a link to an article from one of our readers this morning confirming that yep you can rob banks with your Nokia 1100. Now I might be sensationalising things a little bit with my post, but read the full article posted on PCworld and you’ll realise that this is serious stuff.

Now if you were using SecureSMS from Celltrust to communicate with your bank or something similar issues like this could more than likely be avoided.

Rob Banks With Your Nokia 1100 – Forget the Getaway Car and Gun!

Loads of European banks provide their mobile banking customers with a list of sequential numbers and random requested checksums on a pice of paper or card. Without access to this physical list an attacker might be able to gain access to the banks online GUI but won’t be able to complete a fund transaction. This is a fairly secure method but carrying the piece of paper or card can be a bit cumbersome.

So think about it for a second, what’s more convenient and is always with you? Yep, your mobile phone.
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